Licence plate renewals for vehicles will increase from $74 this year to $98 by 2014, representing a 32 per cent increase. Replacing your driver’s licence will increase from $10 this year to $25 in 2015. Licence renewals will increase from $75 this year to $80 in 2015.
This sudden increase isn’t the result of rising gas prices or insurance costs; rather, it’s in the form of increased taxes and fees, as recommended by Don Drummond, the Chair of the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services.
The collective voice of the Toronto and Ontario Automobile Dealers Associations, representing new car dealers across Ontario, strongly disapproves of this blatant tax grab, especially considering that the Drummond Commission had no mandate to recommend tax increases and showed the government how to balance the budget without increasing taxes. The Drummond Report stated that “most of the burden of eliminating the $30.2 billion shortfall in 2017-’18 must fall on spending.”
Our association strongly urges Premier Dalton McGuinty to reconsider this new tax increase on drivers, who already pay their fair share of taxes to the province. The costs of operating a vehicle in Ontario (loan and/or lease payments, gas, maintenance, insurance, license fees) are already a burden for hundreds of thousands of drivers without introducing higher taxes.
The Ontario government claims it needs the increased revenue in order to pay for roads and bridges. If that is where the new tax revenue actually ends up, the TADA (and drivers) would have an easier time accepting the increase as a necessary cost of maintaining the infrastructure of our roads and highways.
But with the Ontario government planning to spend $124 billion in fiscal year 2011-’12 (including a projected $30 billion deficit), it’s obvious that the additional tax will go directly into general revenues. Why can’t the province meet its growing infrastructure needs with proper planning and budgeting instead of plugging its revenue shortfall by introducing yet another tax?
The government keeps raising taxes to addresses continuous, out-of-control spending, and consumers are fed up with this practice. Where will it stop?
Our association resents that the family car is being blamed for Ontario’s record deficit. Most Ontarians drive an automobile out of necessity, for purposes of work, schooling and family commitments. In today’s difficult economy, many Ontario drivers have not seen an increase in their incomes for years and they struggle to make ends meet.
It’s outrageous that an additional financial burden be placed on drivers, who already pay $9.6 billion to the provincial government every year for costs associated with vehicle ownership, which is $1.3 billion more than Ontario collected via the Corporations Tax in fiscal year 2010-’11.
In my opinion, the reason the government is picking on drivers is because it can do so and get away with it. The outcry from drivers is certain to be more muted than it would from, say, introducing a parking charges at GO Transit lots, an idea that was floated in the Drummond Report, but quickly dismissed.
I realize that objecting to this proposed tax increase on drivers at this late hour isn’t likely to dissuade the government from steamrolling ahead with the new taxes. But the TADA has requested that the Ministry of Transportation initiate the following:
• Every year, publicly disclose how much extra revenue these taxes will generate in a separate line item in the Ministry of Transportation’s budget;
• Every year, publicly disclose where this money will be re-directed; and
• Every year, publicly disclose which specific road and bridge projects will benefit from this extra money and include the project’s total cost.
By acting upon the above recommendations, drivers will be able to clearly track how much money is actually being spent on roads and bridges, and how much goes toward paying down Ontario’s projected $30 billion deficit.
In the last provincial election, Premier McGuinty campaigned on the promise not to raise taxes. Now he is going to break that promise, and he should be held accountable.
Original Article
Source: wheels.ca
Author: Sandy Liguori
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